James Franco’s Upcoming “General Hospital” Appearance Explained

When actor James Franco announced last month that he would be shooting a two-month arc on the soap opera “General Hospital,” fans were puzzled. Had he lost a bet? Was this an elaborate prank? Was he a closet Luke and Laura junkie? Though it’s been rumored the “Pineapple Express” actor (and upcoming “30 Rock” guest star) was doing daytime TV as part of his meta film project “Erased James Franco” with artist/filmmaker Carter, little has been said about who exactly he’ll play on the long-running soap when he makes his first appearance Nov. 20. Speakeasy spoke with “General Hospital” executive producer Jill Farren Phelps for more details.

The Wall Street Journal: How did James Franco’s guest-starring role come about?

Jill Farren Phelps: He approached us. And we all had the same reaction of ‘Really? Are you kidding?’ What we know is that he told his manager, Miles Levy, that he wanted to do a soap opera. Miles also represents one of our actors [Steve Burton], and when we were talking about other issues, he brought it up and said that James had heard [soaps] are hard and thought it would be fun to try. My head writer Bob Guza and I called James in Ireland, where he was doing a movie, and gave him the lay of the land: we told him there was lots of memorization, and he was not the least bit deterred. Then we talked about the type of character that he wanted to play, and he told us when he was done with the movie and back in the States, he’d be there.

How many shows is he doing?

He said he’d like to do at least 10 shows, and was available to work for us on three Fridays, because he’s in school the rest of the time. We decided to cram as many shows as possible into those three days. He started last Friday and so far, we’ve had one sensational day.

Were you ever afraid he was trying punk the show?

We weren’t sure if it was going to happen, even after being consistently reassured. But we made the plane reservation and he showed up — and could not have been nicer or more humble; he was willing to do whatever we asked. He had over 65 pages of material to do in the one day, so it was a very long day, but his demeanor was completely professional. We told him that if he ever wants to give up film acting, there’s always a home for him in Port Charles.

We know his character is named Franco and he’s a pain in the side of Jason (Steve Burton). What else can you tell us?

He’s an unusual character and he has an unusual goal. We’re not saying anything about what he’s doing because we want people to tune in, obviously. Unlike other times when we try to grab people, we think James is enough of a hook. He interacts with a lot of characters, but his primary story arc has to do with Jason.

How are you billing him — guest star?

Yes. A special guest star. If I could, I would have said extremely special movie star guest star. Just kidding.

Are you aware of his project “Erasing James Franco” with the artist Carter?

On the show, he is a playing a character who has an interest in art — but he has acknowledged that he was excited by the art work that was on the sets. We did not talk about the Carter part, and he has not said anything to us to indicate that he’s doing it for any other reason than for the experience of it.

Most soap stars-turned-films actors, like Julianne Moore, Demi Moore or Meg Ryan tend not to talk about where they got their start. This must be a nice change.

It’s true. The fact that he did 65 pages of material in one day — we typically do over 100 pages of material a day — is superb. It’s just such a kick that somebody who has never done this sort of material doesn’t hold that sort of prejudice that we suffer from on a daily basis. It makes “General Hospital” — and hopefully all of daytime television — a cool place to be. At this point in our lives, we could use the reminder to the audience that this is not an old tired industry.

Ratings for the genre are down, and one of the shows you used to work on, “Guiding Light,” was canceled earlier this year. Was that a sobering moment?

Listen, when any one of these shows goes, we’re all devastated for the genre. I was very sorry to see it go. When I was there, it was just a wonderful show with a wonderful history. I personally believe that if people have been watching something for 70 years, it has value. Stories of love and life and family will go on forever.

Soap opera fans are notoriously vocal. How much of their opinions and comments do you take into account when forming storylines?

It depends — we certainly pay attention to what the fans say. There was once an old-timer in the business who said, “If they’re mad, that’s good, they’re watching.” Sometimes you have to take into account that the thing that people say they don’t like, is the same thing that’s keeping them glued to the set.

Brian Frons, the president of Disney-ABC Television Group‘s Daytime division, seems to draw an unusually high amount of vitriol.

I’ve been at the other end of that as well. In fact, when people I haven’t seen in a while say they want to Google me, I always tell them: don’t. I think it just comes from the fact that there’s a huge amount of intensity about soaps. He’s an easy target because he’s the big boss, and the web is an anonymous way to express displeasure, and you don’t know if there’s actually many people who are displeased, or just four people expressing their displeasure many many times. We’ve all done controversial things; some didn’t work, others were risks that paid off. Fans don’t really like change, so such things get them stirred up.

About Speakeasy

Speakeasy is a blog covering media, entertainment, celebrity and the arts. The publication is produced by Barbara Chai and Jonathan Welsh with contributions from the Wall Street Journal staff and others. Write to us at speakeasy@wsj.com or follow us on Twitter at @WSJSpeakeasy or individually @barbarachai.